# Abortion clinic "Buffer zones" in Massachusetts not legal, says unanimous SCOTUS **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 26, 2014, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698 "2014-06-26T14:58:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 28
**Author:** ![theR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@theR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theR)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/541 "2014-07-02T19:27:39Z")
> [@Revenant\_Threshold](#): > > How about the flip side of this - are there organisations which advocate for pro-choice policy, and also provide adoption support? Not necessarily a question to you, of course. Planned Parenthood offers pregnancy options counseling with abortion, adoption, and parenting as the options. I would consider providing information, answering questions, and providing references to helpful adoption resources as support. They don’t directly work to get infants adopted as far as I know, but they do help pregnant mothers learn about adoption. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/542 "2014-07-02T19:30:50Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Nothing on that list indicates a position of the group one way or the other on the question of same-sex adoption, so I have no idea, and am disinclined to search down the list, researching each group. Perhaps you could help me Google “anti-abortion groups that support gay adoption”, then. I’ve tried using several different word combinations, but I keep coming up blank. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/543 "2014-07-02T20:14:34Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > The biggest reason appears to be failure to recognize the pregnancy: > > [Late termination of pregnancy - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late-term_abortion#Reasons) > > (Note: this is based on a Guttmacher survey of abortions after the 16th week, not the 20th week) medical necessity doesn’t seem to be a really big reason. > > [http://www.holysmoke.org/fem/fem0543.htm](http://www.holysmoke.org/fem/fem0543.htm) Note: This survey is 27 years old, and also from your Wiki cite, also there are 3 times as many abortions that occur between 16 and 20 weeks than occur after 20 weeks, so its not clear how well the study applies the study applies to the very small percentage that occur after 20 weeks in the year 2014. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/544 "2014-07-02T20:39:00Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Perhaps you could help me Google “anti-abortion groups that support gay adoption”, then. I’ve tried using several different word combinations, but I keep coming up blank. Well it looks like there is [at least one](http://www.plagal.org/). I can’t find where they explicitly advocate gay adoption but given their premise I’d be surprised if they didn’t. Still I agree that they are the exception rather than the rule. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/545 "2014-07-02T20:50:58Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Well, the original also includes a part about not cutting for the (kidney) stone, meaning “don’t try and infringe on the barber-surgeons’ trade”. Think we’re all glad docs outgrew \*that \*one. It seems like the prohibitions against abortions is an extension of the “do no harm” part of the oath. I have no idea what the prohibition against cutting stone has to do with. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/546 "2014-07-02T20:53:12Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Well it looks like there is [at least one](http://www.plagal.org/). I can’t find where they explicitly advocate gay adoption but given their premise I’d be surprised if they didn’t. Still I agree that they are the exception rather than the rule. There’s one…but it seems like they haven’t updated their website since early 2007. edited to add: Apparently they switched to using a [blog](http://prolifegays.blogspot.com/)…but _that_ hasn’t been updated since June of 2012. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/547 "2014-07-03T14:34:21Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > You’ve talked to me. I’m anti-abortion, and I have no objections in the world to same-sex couples adopting. > > This omission makes me suspect that your anecdotes suffer from comprehension bias. Am I the only anti-abortion person you’ve ever heard of that feels this way? **Bricker** , please note: I am only referring to my conversations with rapid anti-abortion protestors. The type that stand outside the local Women’s Health clinic screaming, chasing down, and putting their hands on the women going in for health care. When I hear them telling a couple with young children “Don’t go in there. They murder babies” and “There are no doctors in that building. Just abortionists,” I feel outrage. Maybe you agree with such tactics, but I don’t. And I thought that people who perform abortions have to have a Medical Doctor license. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/548 "2014-07-03T14:36:49Z")
_Rapid_? Was that an autocorrect for \*rabid \*or _vapid_, or maybe both? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/549 "2014-07-03T14:55:55Z")
Rabid. Those protestors are like mad dogs IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/550 "2014-07-03T15:25:03Z")
> [@Hector\_St\_Clare](#): > > I’m not invested in the clinic protests one way or the other, since I don’t participate in them. I am however entirely uninterested in abortion-seekers having special freedom from protests that other groups (except polticians, I guess) don’t have. If it’s legal to throw disruptive protests inside a church, it should be legal to have disruptive protests outside an abortion clinic. Abortion is already far too easy and guilt-free a procedure. [Well, some people praise the murderer for shooting a doctor in a church.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_George_Tiller#Reactions_to_Tiller.27s_killing). How is that not a “disruptive protest”? And I’d like a cite for abortion being “far too easy and guilt-free a procedure.” One common anti-abortion claim is that all women who have an abortion suffer guilt the rest of their lives. One protestor told me her 90 year old grandmother had an abortion seven years ago and still cried over it every day! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/551 "2014-07-03T16:31:20Z")
Is that another typo, because if it’s not, I have a follow-up question. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/552 "2014-07-05T14:43:22Z")
70 (seventy) years ago. And I’d tell Granny “GET OVER IT ALREADY!” ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/553 "2014-07-05T17:35:58Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Then I suggest you work within the process to achieve your goals. Screaming at people about to do what they have every right to do is the mark of a USDA Prime Certified Asshole. So people on union picket lines who shout at ‘scabs’ are certified assholes? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/554 "2014-07-05T18:09:25Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I can tell you that that’s unlikely, simply because the more common-sense approach is for the anti-abortion group to simply provide referrals to the adoption group, rather than trying to keep both functions – which require entirely different skill sets, resources, and methods – under one roof. I think the question is whether the people who are involved in adopthelp (Mark and Alanna Goldman) are involved in pro-life advocacy at all, or are they just the owners of an agency that helps arrange adoptions? ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/555 "2014-07-05T18:40:25Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > So people on union picket lines who shout at ‘scabs’ are certified assholes? Uh yes. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/556 "2014-07-06T01:33:26Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > Uh yes. Glad you think so, and I do too. I think people who stand outside of abortion clinics and scream at women having their worst day ever are also assholes. But I’d like to see how many on the left who condemn abortion protestors are wiling to extend their condemnation to union picketers and other left-wing protestors who employ the same tactics. Hell, the union guys often go a lot further than that. Violence and verbal threats against ‘scabs’ are not uncommon. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/557 "2014-07-06T01:56:11Z")
I don’t understand how protestors are allowed on clinic property. If I went down to the butcher shop and set up in their parking lot and yelled at customers that meat is murder and handed out pro-vegetarian literature or showed them pictures of slaughter houses the owners would call the cops and have me kicked out or arrested. What am I missing? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/558 "2014-07-06T02:10:13Z")
**marshmallow** : public sidewalks. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/559 "2014-07-06T03:21:38Z")
So “Free Speech Zones” as we have seen them in the past are illegal now, right? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698/560 "2014-07-06T04:22:32Z")
Was the ruling that general? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698.md?page=27) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-massachusetts-not-legal-says-unanimous-scotus/691698.md?page=29)